Ben Gongzi can only be speechless, it seems that Li Yuan is like a girl who is in love for the first time, falling in love with the flower thief who took away her virginity, snuggling up to the window every day, silly, stupid, etc., waiting for the dark and obscene figure of Li Mi, the flower thief, to appear.

Of course, such a description can't be told to Li Shimin, saving this kid and me from struggling with his life, but Li Yuan is acting like an unlucky ghost who is about to drown at the moment, and Li Mi stretched out a rope as thin as wool. Li Yuan could only reach out and grab it, hoping to survive in secret.

Uncle finally left Jiaozhi, and the original Jiaozhi Taishou Qiu He, now it has become the history of Jiaonan Province. I have already issued an order to merge the original three counties of Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, and Rinan and the surrounding areas into one province, and have given a large number of preferential policies to vigorously develop the land of Jiaozhi.

There is coal and iron here, and now, even the steel in Guanzhong is imported from here. The steel material is quite good, and the quality is stable, far more than the iron found everywhere in Guanzhong at the beginning, often because of the impurities contained in different and affect the quality of the steel.

Even the Artillery and Gunpowder Research Institute has now set up two special groups to study the smelting of Cochin steel. After all, the amount of iron ore and impurities varies from place to place, and so do the required heat and how to remove impurities.

At present, Jiaozhi has developed to three shipyards, 35 large and medium-sized docks, and the total number of workers has reached more than 17,000, and the number of related industries has exceeded 70,000. The birth of cotton flowers, as well as the improvement of weaving machinery, have greatly improved the quality of sails.

Today, the No. 12 dock of the largest shipyard in Cochin, has begun to build the keel of a 653-ton ship, which is the largest ocean-going ship in the world today, and it is an excellent ship designed by combining the advantages of the Fuku, Galen and clippers.

Named the Huaxia Ship, the ship only needs a minimum of 50 people to operate, and when fully loaded, it can reach 1,000 people, and under normal conditions, it can carry more than 300 tons of cargo and 250 people at sea for three months without stopping.

Such loading capacity and ocean performance are absolutely second to none. Moreover, the speed is not slow, well, of course, it is at least half as slow as a real clipper ship, but compared to the ordinary ships of this era, it is already extremely fast, and the important thing is that this kind of ship is extremely wind-resistant, so it is very suitable for ocean sailing.

Previously, the 100-ton and 200-ton ships of this design had already begun to sail on the sea, and after their verification and filling in the gaps, it was finally decided to build this 653-ton giant ship

Of course, this is far from the limit of ocean-going sailing ships, remember that in later generations, the most powerful wooden battleships of the English Navy even reached 2,000 tons, so we are still early. In the future, I believe that in less than ten years, we will have the ability and strength to build these warships.

It's just another matter whether to build it or not, after all, such a warship is indeed a fortress on the sea, but he needs to have an opponent who can match it to be able to exert its great power.

In this era, the largest ships are afraid that they are all from the Chinese Empire, and others, such as the warships of Dashi and Persia, are said to be the largest is about 100 tons, and to deal with the giant ships of 2,000 tons, there is really a sense of disobedience with a big guillotine knife to kill chickens.

Now, the ships produced by the shipyards in the land of Jiaozhi are gradually replacing the merchant ships in the hands of the maritime merchants of the Chinese Empire, but if you want to buy our merchant ships, there is no problem, but these ships have a clear number, and will make it clear to these merchants that these ships are not allowed to be sold to anyone outside the Chinese Empire.

Although it is not possible to completely prohibit other countries from learning the technology, the later the better, and in addition, as merchant ships, at present, only the Fuku, Shapan, and Galen ships are sold, while the clippers and Huaxia ships are not allowed to be sold to anyone.

And their production is also limited to the first shipyard, which is a standard military shipyard, and anyone who dares to approach it will honestly go to the prison and eat prison meals for a few years.

The total population of Cochin is also expanding rapidly, from less than 180,000 in the past, to more than 350,000 now, and the population from Tiannan alone who came to Cochin to engage in shipbuilding and related industries is enough for 100,000 people.

As for gunpowder weapons, although they have begun to be used in large quantities, at present, the gunpowder weapons production plant is still in a state of secrecy, and it was arranged by Ben Gongzi at the foot of the mountain north of the Qinling Mountains, and the most produced at present are grenades or mines.

The grenade only needs to be wrapped in a layer of properly quenched iron sheet with beautiful lines, which is naturally filled with granular gunpowder, and its firing equipment is the simplest, a flint lighter.

There is no need for high-tech and sophisticated gadgets, or even any too sophisticated parts, and even the outsourced iron sheet is just an iron sheet, so the grenade has become a thing that the generals are striving for.

At present, it is mainly to supply the army of places like Yan'an County, Xihai County, Heyuan County, or the south of Bashu, well, the best weapon to shock foreign enemies. On the contrary, it is less used in civil wars.

As for the artillery, it is still in preparation, in a word, there is not enough copper, how to make the cannon?

And the flintlock muskets, now, have been equipped with a battalion of the Janissaries, and it is expected that by the end of this year, a division will be equipped, and by that time, the world's first gunpowder weapon unit in history will be shown in front of the world.

In addition, the research and smelting of cast iron is currently advancing by leaps and bounds. Today's Chinese Empire lacks copper, but there is no shortage of steel, not to mention that now, the fine steel transported by Duojiaozhi is very favored by craftsmen.

In the past, when copper was scarce, the smelting and improvement of cast iron was on the agenda, but progress was very slow.

The main thing is the performance of cast iron cannons, which are indeed inferior to those cast from bronze and brass, and the advantage of cast iron is that it is cheaper, not that its performance is better than that of other metals.

Whether it is brass or bronze, although it is expensive, it has a tough texture and is not easy to burst. The bronze cannon will deform after a long period of firing, which will disturb the cannonball through the breech. Therefore, the best artillery shooting is still brass.

However, cast iron can be improved, the earliest cast iron cannons will explode after firing five shells in a row, while the later cast iron cannons have been able to fire twenty-five to thirty shells without exploding.

Up to now, the quality of the cast iron has been quite good, but there are still some problems that need to be solved, such as the strength is still slightly insufficient, and the continuous firing will still explode, and the casting shell of the cast cannon still needs to be improved, and the quality of the molten iron of the cast iron still has the possibility of improving. That is, to try to reduce the impurities and carbon content in the cast iron molten iron.

If it is really possible to reduce the impurities and carbon content by a large margin, perhaps the high-quality thing such as cast steel will appear nearly a thousand years in advance. Think about the fact that during the First World War, the cast steel artillery of the German company Krupp was arguably the top artillery of that era.

And now we have coke, plus the impurities in the hot air that this son proposed to them to blow into the hot air to accelerate the molten iron oxide, and the other is to mix lime, fluorite, bauxite to filter some useless phosphorus and other impurities to form waste residue. So that now it is possible to refine better steel, but unfortunately, as far as Ben Gongzi's poor chemical knowledge is concerned, he only knows that electrolysis can obtain oxygen, and he really doesn't know how to work to extract oxygen.

Even these smelting methods are some basic common sense that I asked after seeing them in the small steel mills in the town.

Nowadays, the problems communicated by those old craftsmen are completely blackened, and at most they occasionally squeak to express their support and encouragement.

Fortunately, these people have learned to use the pen and know how to record the process of each research, so that the newcomers who join in later can understand the principles and methods of steel smelting in the shortest possible time.

Even many of the textbooks in the current college are the ones that these old craftsmen who have never known words for most of their lives have learned to read and write, and after writing, they have written down their own experiences, or they have specially hired people to record their thoughts and ideas, and finally get them.

As long as this problem can be solved, I believe that in the near future, the army of the Chinese Empire will be able to use cast steel artillery, and at that time, copper only needs to be used to cast shell shells, and a lot of copper can be saved to do other things.

The North, the Eastern Turks, and Jieli Khan once again sent envoys, urging us to increase the ratio of liquor to horses, to open up the export of iron tools, and even to be able to trade arms with us, and to exchange horses, cattle and sheep for weapons and armor produced by the Chinese Empire.

Nowadays, the Hundred Refining Weapon has begun to equip the troops on a large scale, and although the lethality of the Hundred Refining Steel Knife is not enough to cut off the enemy's weapon with a single sword, it can easily break through the opponent's armor. Especially leather armor, in front of the hundred steel knives, leather armor is not much different from paper at all.

Even if it is an iron armor, a powerful person like Li Yuanfang can easily cut through the iron armor with a hundred steel swords. Now, we have sold out the inventory in the arsenal of Chang'an of the original Sui Dynasty, well, either for favors, or to those who need it, especially those from the Central Plains.

Even the weapons of thirty refinements have begun to be exported to the outside world, of course, not like the grassland, but to those who are in urgent need of weapons, but their own production is difficult to satisfy. Our sailors now enable our merchants to trade in any powerful territory at will.